A couple of months ago we had an in depth discussion about the implications of the proliferation of 3D printers will have on the production industry at our Future of Making Forum. The extent of the impact it could have is staggering, particularly in terms of how we perceive the value and production of physical goods. However the next industrial revolution will have a hard time coming about if we have nothing to fuel it. Thankfully a more affordable, environmentally conscious solution might be on the cards.

The Filabot takes regular household plastics, drink bottles, yoghurt pots and even unwanted 'printed' products and grinds them down into the material to make a spool that can be fed back into the printer. Essentially creating a tabletop manufacturing system that would operate at a fraction of the frankly rather steep costs currently involved with 3D printing.